A couple Bible verses that keep me going...

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Mark 11:23.

Everything is possible for him/her who believes. Mark 9:23.


Via Con Dios

Thanks all for responding.

Obviously I'm not beating myself up that I haven't made it as a pro writer at the age of 20. That would be ridiculous. We're all students of the craft, no matter how many screenplays we've written or production credits we have to our name, and that's a journey that lasts our whole lives.

But the story Chris said is the kind of thing I mean. Don't any of you ever worry that there might be some sort of ceiling within you which you'll just be banging your head against no matter how hard you try? That determined re-writing and absorption of feedback can only take you so far?

Again, I'm not saying this is the case with me. But don't any of you wonder that it might be true?

Here's a different view screenrider.

When one of my twins were 12, she had been told in school that you can be anything you want and don't let anyone say you can't. Well, that's all fine and dandy....except for this short skinny little girl wanted to be a professional football player!  And she was serious too.  

Quoted from Grandma Bear Here's a different view screenrider. When one of my twins were 12, she had been told in school that you can be anything you want and don't let anyone say you can't. Well, that's all fine and dandy....except for this short skinny little girl wanted to be a professional football player!  And she was serious too.

She just needs Old Spice.

This one's better...

http://www.ignitermedia.com./products/iv/singles/23/The-March-Of-The-Unqualified

Quoted from Grandma Bear Not really skeptical to what you said, but rather how this business works. If you play baseball and you keep getting better and better people will notice, because you will become an important player to the team and they will want you. That's not how it works in the film industry...at least I don't think so.

Oh, I know.  Haha.  No way is that how the film industry works.  I was referencing that to getting better at the craft.  Basically stepping out of mediocrity and into more of a master at the craft.  Making it in the industry is an entirely different ballgame altogether, though being really good at screenwriting helps a little.

Greg

Quoted from Grandma Bear When one of my twins were 12, she had been told in school that you can be anything you want and don't let anyone say you can't. Well, that's all fine and dandy....except for this short skinny little girl wanted to be a professional football player!  And she was serious too.

Like Conan O'Brien said: "You can do anything you want - unless Jay Leno wants to do it too".

Quoted from bert Can you imagine Phil starting a thread asking, "I wonder if I am any good..."

The question really is why any of us are writing, really?  If everyone, here, is writing to become rich and famous, then we're all gonna be a pretty disappointed bunch.  If, on the other hand, we write because we like to write and we have stories to tell, then we're all doing pretty good.

If my writing was a business, I would've closed shop a long time ago.  I probably made more money the one year I was a janitor, than I have in twenty-five years of writing.  And I spend more on my writing than I have made from it.

So why do I do it?  Because I'm a writer. I'm a dreamer and I'm a storyteller.  Not everyone has liked what I've written and they've been pretty verbal about it here (figuratively speaking). Being here is a learning experience.  Probably the only better place to learn about writing is through a script doctor.  And they're expensive.

Whether or not you're a good or bad writer, here, there will be those who will read your work. You just have to participate in the boards and learn from what others say.

And you have to have fun.  That's the most important thing.


Phil

Quoted from mcornetto There is no way to re-insert a post.    We'll there might be but it's way too complicated and could easily cause the world to implode if done incorrectly so no one has tried it.  Best if you just post it to the thread now and say it was the first post.

Ok.  Important saftey tip.  Don't cross the streams.

Quoted from JonnyBoy No, I didn't get grilled. My script was...solid! Annoyingly,...

I'd rather have a solid script than some of the remarks I've got.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother.  I won't be entering more OWC challenges.

I know that with each script we write that it should be better than the last one, but I'm feeling that I haven't moved an inch in the past year.  I might be going backwards.

Quoted from jayrex I'd rather have a solid script than some of the remarks I've got.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother.  I won't be entering more OWC challenges. I know that with each script we write that it should be better than the last one, but I'm feeling that I haven't moved an inch in the past year.  I might be going backwards.

I have doubts every time I write something.

The only thing I think I've changed in the last 18 months is try not to use the word and, but that made a big improvement.

Now, if I could only figure out the proper use of commas....  

Quoted from Grandma Bear Here's a different view screenrider. When one of my twins were 12, she had been told in school that you can be anything you want and don't let anyone say you can't. Well, that's all fine and dandy....except for this short skinny little girl wanted to be a professional football player!  And she was serious too.

Good point. People who tell kids they can be anything they want to be should be smacked over the head.   My daughter started doing drama classes when she was 8 and I told her early in the piece that you've got more chance of winning the lottery than you have of becoming a Hollywood star. But it didn't dampen her enthusiasm. She's 16 and still doing drama. But she does it because she enjoys it. Not because she has delusions of grandeur.

Quoted from Grandma Bear Now, if I could only figure out the proper use of commas....

The advice I received about using commas was don't unless the sentence makes no sense without one.  I try to stick with that advice.  Now;if I could only learn;how to use semicolons.

Curse you, Jonny. I wrote a friggin' huge reply for you before you deleted your post and when I posted it there was no thread to reply to, I got an error message, and my well-thought out and lengthy reply was lost. You wasted fifteen minutes of my time. Thanks a lot.

Basically, what it said was: 1. Stop bitching. Screenwriting is not the only hard field to break into. 2. Mediocrity ultimately boils down to subjective opinion, and even if not so, again, it is not the only profession in which you would have to limit yourself initially.

Just eat your complaints, your apathy, and your defeatist attitude; chew them and swallow them, and get to write, damn it! We must fight our way to the top like the big boys do, just like in any other job. Think of it as a game of King of the Hill.


--Julio

Quoted from Takeshi People who tell kids they can be anything they want to be should be smacked over the head.   My daughter started doing drama classes when she was 8 and I told her early in the piece that you've got more chance of winning the lottery than you have of becoming a Hollywood star.

These people were told that, too.  

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